Lysander spray park to open Aug. 16

Eagle Scout builds checkerboard for park

By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

The Lysander Park spray park finally has an opening date: Friday, Aug. 16. The town will hold a celebration starting at noon with food trucks, entertainment and a fireworks display at dark.

“We’re really excited about it. This is over two and a half years in the making, so we’d like to invite one and all,” Supervisor Joe Saraceni said at the July 18 town board meeting.

More details will be available at facebook.com/LysanderParkSprayPark in the coming weeks.

“We’ll make sure that as plans take shape, we’ll put that out to the public,” Saraceni said.

At the July 18 meeting, the Lysander Town Board approved the purchase of a welcome/rules sign for the spray park in the amount of $1,935 to Sign-A-Rama. The board also authorized a payment of $13,500 to D.E. Tarolli for three additional days of work on the project because of rainy weather.

Kyle Rogers of Troop 80 installed park benches and a life-size checkerboard in Lysander Park for his Eagle Scout project. He is shown here with Lysander Town Supervisor Joe Saraceni at the July 18 town board meeting. (Photo courtesy of Lysander Parks and Recreation)

Despite the delay, Phase I of the project — the installation of a concrete pad and spray fixtures — is nearing completion and is on budget. Town Engineer Al Yager said he does not expect Phase I to exceed its projected budget of $344,000.

Phase II includes a new pavilion and bathrooms. At the March 21 town board meeting, Saraceni said the town “will not even entertain Phase II until it has secured funding for that phase, including state grants.”

At the work session preceding the July 18 meeting, Yager said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told the town it cannot discharge water from the spray park into the storm sewer without disinfecting it. So, the town will install a secondary pump for the spray park’s first season and then install an ultraviolet disinfection light over the winter as part of Phase II. The second pump will then be converted to a recirculation pump to be used with the UV light.

The spray park is not the only new addition to Lysander Park this summer. The town has accepted numerous donations of park benches from local organizations such as Word of Life Assembly of God and, most recently, the Baldwinsville Rotary. Past Rotary President Meg Van Patten presented Saraceni with a $1,150 donation toward a park bench and an Adirondack-style chair at the July 18 meeting.

Saraceni thanked Rotary for the donation and urged residents to give back to the community by volunteering for organizations like Rotary.

“Baldwinsville is a great community because of the volunteer organizations within it, and those organizations need volunteers and they need help. To keep membership up to the point where they can continue to do the activities that they’re engaged in and make Baldwinsville a great community, I would ask that if you’ve got some time, consider joining an organization,” he said.

Van Patten said Baldwinsville Rotary is one of the largest Rotary clubs in Upstate New York.

“We always welcome new members,” she said.

For more information, visit baldwinsvillerotary.org.

The town board also recognized Kyle Rogers of Boy Scout Troop 80 for his Eagle Scout project. Rogers installed park benches and a life-size checkerboard in Lysander Park. Parkgoers can sign out checkers from the park attendant after 4 p.m. each day.